Thursday, December 30, 2010

Need by Carrie Jones or The Book That Yanked Me out of Vacation Mode

Need by Carrie Jones
Copyright 2009
Bloomsbury - Young Adult/Paranormal
306 pages

Need begins a paranormal young adult series that takes place in Maine, where Zara has moved after the death of her stepfather left her so paralyzed with grief that her mother thinks she needs a change of scenery. Later in the book, you find out there's more to the move from Charleston than just Zara's depression, but that's a spoiler I can't share with you.

In Maine, Zara quickly finds herself with one instant enemy, an energetic best friend and two handsome admirers. She also discovers that the man who seemed to be stalking her in Charleston was not a figment of her imagination, after all. He's still following her and wherever he goes, gold pixie dust is left behind.

Yep, this one has to do with pixies. It's amazing what a variety of paranormal books have become available in the past couple of years. This one contains pixies and their natural enemies -- the were, as in "werewolves" but not just wolves fall into the "were" category.

Need is enthralling, romantic (the guy she falls for is definitely every woman's dream -- maybe even a bit too perfect, at times) and at times very exciting. There were a few too many times I found myself mentally chanting at the heroine to go back inside, back inside, listen to the warnings everyone's giving you. But, other than that and the occasional grammatical error, the book is a good one and I'm definitely going to continue reading this series.

Which brings to mind the fact that I'm not normally a person who enjoys series books. I don't know what it is about paranormal YA books that I find so compelling -- maybe the fact that they're extremely escapist reads? But, I do find that I'm reading more series books since such a broad variety of paranormal young adult books have come on the market.

The cover is kind of bland, in my humble opinion, but it fits because of the gold pixie dust and the fact that a pixie kiss (which is something you really don't want to happen to you -- just do not kiss a pixie if you're ever tempted) figures into the storyline.

I checked this book out from the public library in my town. Their YA section is really improving, but there's a little irony . . . most of the YA books I check out seem to have been purchased with grant money from International Paper. How fascinating is that? By giving grant money for book purchases, they end up selling more paper.

In other news:

I'm really, really sick of housework and have a long way to go because Kiddo will be home, this semester (taking some of his core classes locally) and we've got to find a way to create a comfortable, quiet study area for him -- not easy in our crowded little house. Someone send me a house fairy? The good kind, of course -- the ones who magically make the messes go away and the tub scrub itself.

I have been pondering my 2011 reading and blogging goals, working on my list of all the books I read (with links -- that was really tiring) and gathering books for my personal challenge, which I'll tell you more about, later. There will be photographs. I know how you love photographs.

Both my husband and I have such small families that we get almost zippo gifts, so we just go out and buy ourselves one big gift, each year. I sent hubby out to buy little me a reader. At this point, I'm calling her Petunia and she only contains free books because my finger hasn't accidentally slipped and hit the "buy this book" button when the price has been over $0.00. <--- I love that price.

Hope you're all having a good time soaking up the post-holiday joy, preparing for the new year and reading, reading, reading all those presents you got. You got books, right? Technically, I didn't get any, however, Hubby kindly gave me a Borders gift card. I'll use it soon. I'm worried about Borders' financial health and mourning the closing of Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville, a magical place I had hoped to return to on future visits to Nashville. I cried alligator tears when I saw pictures of the empty shelves. Call me a sap, but that place was awesome.

Off to knock a random family member off my reading spot.

:)

8 comments:

  1. If you find a cleaning fairy, send him/her my way next!! We are doing some major rearranging too so that our DIL and two grand-daughters can move in with us while one of my sons is at Officer Candidate School. Where oh where will we put everything and everybody?!?

    I enjoyed the book Need when I read it although I found the similarity to Twilight a bit too strong. I'd try a sequel though if my TBR pile wasn't so toweringly tall (I think I made that word up!)

    Enjoy a safe and Happy New Year's Eve and may your New Year be full of great possibilities!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Inside a Book,

    I'm not holding out much hope for that cleaning fairy. Guess I'll just have to do the work myself.

    Sounds like you and I are in the same boat. We have a *very* small house, mostly because it's so crammed with furniture to hold books. There's never been a good place for Kiddo to study but he needs it and we're just going to figure it out, period. It's got to be done.

    I did sense a little bit of similarity to Twilight in the romance within Need. The hero was just a little too perfect, the adventurous part rather short-lived. But, I liked the book and I already bought the second in the series.

    Many thanks. I wish you and yours a safe New Year's Eve and joyful wonders in 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I need the cleaning fairy too. lol My goal is to clean and organize my entire house in 2011.

    My Dad got my sister and me an ipad to share for Christmas. I downloaded the Nook app and like it so far. I only have free books on it too. :)I am trying to figure out how to download some of the classics from the free sites. We don't have Wifi in the house yet so I have limited time to work on it.

    I am working on my book goals tonight and which reading challenges I am joining. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brittanie,

    I think we need more cleaning fairies in the South, in general, don't you? That's one of my main goals for 2011, too, cleaning and organizing my home. In fact, the blog is going to have to take a backseat to quite a few other things, this year.

    I haven't got a Nook app, yet! That's one more project for me. So cool of your dad. You need a wireless network, next. :)

    Have fun coming up with your book goals. I've pondered mine; now I need to write them down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cool! Happy e-reading! I wish you all the loveliest in 2011. :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andiloo,

    Why, thank you, dear. I wish you a lovely 2011, too! Happy reading (of all kinds, including shampoo bottles).

    ReplyDelete
  7. This one interests me, but I haven't gotten into the pixie stories yet. Not sure how well I'll like pixies.

    I want a cleaning fairy too. Chris made the comment last month that if I got a promotion at work, he wanted to hire a cleaning service. Fingers crossed I get a promotion. lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kris,

    I think you'd like it. It's very much like a lot of other paranormal YA but the pixies just give it a slightly different flair.

    Haha. You don't need a cleaning fairy!!! Your house is always so spotless. I'll cross my fingers you get that promotion, though!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog! I use comment moderation because apparently my blog is a spam magnet. Don't worry. If you're not a robot, your comment will eventually show up and I will respond, with a few exceptions. If a comment smacks of advertising, contains a dubious link or is offensive, it will be deleted. I love to hear from real people! I'm a really chatty gal and I love your comments!